Posts in "Campus Activism Report"

Two weeks ago it warmed up enough here at University of Alaska, Fairbanks for our university's annual outdoor event called "Springfest," where there's food, bounce houses, knockerball, and other activities. I was able to use the Incarceration Nation (IncNat) kit to remind people of their rights in a fun, engaging way that everyone enjoyed.

I dressed up as a cop complete with aviators, stick-on mustache, and a really fake badge. We had made a "jail" earlier that day, we had an orange button up short sleeve shirt for a prison uniform, all so I could fake arrest people and their friends could take a picture of them.

YAL @ UAF member, Wyatt, modeling the shirt behind bars.

Wyatt, me and my convincing mustache.

We didn't build an entire fake jail, just a 40"x40" section of it so that we could walk around with it. Wyatt would follow me with the bars saying,"Let me out! Let me out!" to which I would snap back,"Quiet, inmate!"

However all this prep is worthless unless you can ask complete strangers the three questions provided on the IncNat flyer. The first consideration is who to target. We did best with large groups and especially couples, because guys are less likely to simply walk off if a girl is interested in what you're saying.

Be quick and to the point. What worked for me is to say,"Excuse me, do you have a minute to answer a couple of questions?" Don't wait for an answer, if there is a moment's hesitation just start asking the questions off the flyer. "Have you ever had a drink while under 21? Have you ever smoked marijuana or know someone who has, and did you report that person?"

Obviously the vast majority of people will admit to one or all of those, at which point you say,"Well I'm afraid that makes you a criminal, and so I'm going to put you under arrest while your friends take pictures of you." This is where people crack up and someone will likely get their picture taken behind the fake jail.

Now talk about YAL and remind people of their rights while dealing with cops. The little blue cards are great for this, they can pocket them and they'll be reminded of that fun moment when they clear their pockets. Get an email to let them know about future events. Before they walk away tell them about a YAL pizza party or some event of yours for them to come to, preferably that night.

When you have them at your event, have some initial conversation and then go into the IncNat documentary.

**Note: If you dress up like a cop, don't make it too convincing for several reasons but on the top of that list is you don't want to be arrested for impersonating an officer.

Second, is that you should let people take their own pictures because if you take one they need to sign a picture release (blog.rightsignature.com/2013/03/photo-release-form-template.html) and nobody wants to hassle with that.

Finally I wanted to let you know how to make that jail super cheap and easy, just get three 10' long white PVC pipes, cut them in thirds, 40" (safety first! Wear protective glasses and have someone experienced with power tools do it). You don't need screws or glue, just silver duct tape to connect it all up and it's very easy to start over if you make a mistake.

YAL at the University of Utah had a great revival event with Incarceration Nation. The students of the U were gratifyingly passionate about the subject, and many were interested in getting more involved with YAL.

Even the faculty that came by were intrigued, and offered getting us connected with more faculty support and funding. It was a definite triumph for liberty at the University of Utah!

YAL at University of Illinois at Springfield hosted a successful Incarceration Nation event on campus early last week. Our chapter constructed a jail cell to display at our table as we highlighted the astronomical rates of incarceration in the United States and the detrimental impact of the War on Drugs.

We grabbed a lot of attention with the jail cell and talked to many students, staff, and professors on campus. We received a lot of positive attention and were able to discuss the problems that the War on Drugs has wrought on communities, families, and individuals.

Additionally, we offered information about mandatory minimum sentencing and cards with valuable information about how to interact with police. These cards were very popular and offered a lot of valuable information about the rights citizens maintain when interacting with police. These were our most popular item, with students taking multiple copies to give to their friends.

We also had plenty of students sign postcards urging congress to take action and roll back destructive policies that have led to mass incarceration.

Criminal justice reform is an issue that unites those of many political backgrounds. This event highlighted that, as students from diverse backgrounds and political affiliations showed support for this event.

On April 27, 2015 liberty was a message heard loud and clear all across Cabrini College's usually serene campus in Radnor, PA. Outside our main academic building, Founder's Hall, Young Americans For Liberty was playing music, dancing, explaining, and engaging first year students and long time faculty alike in the message of freedom.

In accordance with Cabrini's mission, there is a focus on social justice. Although sometimes associated with big government, social justice does not conflict with liberty. Society is best equalized when the citizenry is not forced into action.

Spreading the message of liberty, the Cabrini chapter of YAL focused on shedding light on the fact that the War on Drugs is not only inequitable but a waste of money. If we are to stand idly by while young American citizens, Americans without financial resources are put in a cage for behavior we do not find disharmonious, we are to inherit a legal system which reflects the sentiments of its people less and less.

This message hit home with much of our campus, as we had professors singing our praise as we handed out materials in between class periods. Taxpayers ought not to fund incarceration they disagree with. American citizens ought to be kept in society, contributing, living, enjoying the American dream. Drug addiction is a public health problem, not a criminal justice problem. Reaching new groups of the campus, YAL initiated this dialogue.

The point is, friends, when you have a message which merits listening as much as we do here at YAL, have fun with it. Sing the words loud and proud as there is no lobby, no group which has cause to oppose liberty. We fight for the rights of all American citizens, to reach as many audiences as we can. "We the people" can find common ground with all Americans, there is a consensus on liberty in our chapter, and that is "the more, the better!" But our message has not been encountered or fully realized by all, so until then, we will charge, and we will take our country back.

Last Wednesday, Young Americans for Liberty at UW-Whitewater hosted a political debate between our school's College Democrats, College Republicans, and our YAL chapter.

Our chapter had always wanted to do a debate, and we decided now was the time. It took a lot of work to finally get it all together. The republicans said they've been trying to do an event like this for awhile, but it never came to fruition. I guess all it took was an organization like YAL to bring them together.

Planning the debate took almost two months, this included renting out a theatre and many planning meetings between the YAL, the Republicans, and the Democrats, which was always interesting (and sometimes frustrating). But it was great to see all three of the organizations work together to achieve a common goal.

The debate featured two or three members from each of the organizations and was moderated by the chief editor of our school's newspaper. He did an excellent job. The debate was structured with an hour and a half for predetermined questions, where all three of our groups came up with a list of questions to be asked during the debate.

Each group had up to three minutes to answer the question and a two minute rebuttal if desired. Topics included were the state budget, foreign policy, gun control, Right to Work legislation, environmental policy, the tax code, and campaign finance. The second part of the debate (half an hour) was designated for audience questions.

The audience questions were very popular, they're wasn't even enough time to go through all the questions. We allowed only two minutes for a response with no rebuttals in this portion.

The feedback we got from the debate afterwards was excellent. People said it was very interesting, kept their attention, and that they learned a lot. This debate was an superb platform to raise awareness of liberty and our organization and to show people there's more than just the Republicans and Democrats.

On Wednesday, April 22, Young Americans for Liberty at University of Wisconsin - Whitewater hosted our Incarceration Nation Event. We had a great time talking with students and telling them about the our nation’s ridiculous criminal system and the police state our nation has become.

Students were shocked to find out about the staggering amount of people in our country’s prisons. Of the materials we received, the cards stating how to deal with police were a huge hit! Even if people were not interested in learning about the criminal justice system, almost everyone was happy to get them and actually wanted the police tips card (which shows something about our current system).

Students also liked taking pictures behind the mock prison, but they didn’t know whether to smile or not. Overall, this was a fantastic event which brought awareness to our organization and our criminal “injustice” system.

On April 21, 2015, the Washburn University Young Americans for Liberty did a tabling and social media event on campus to inform people of the over criminalization of the United States of America.

We had a jail cell for students to take pictures and tweet out awareness of the criminal justice system in the United States. On one side of it we had the booking wall where they took pictures with a sign that had in their booking number that spelled out "police state."

We also had supplies provided by YAL that gave statistical information about our criminal justice system. We got the campus paper to write a story about our event.

We were able to find a few interested members to join our chapter.

To see the article written by the campus paper and video done on our event go to:

On Saturday, April 25 I had the privilege of organizing the first annual Wisconsin YAL Leadership Forum hosted by the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Although we only had about two weeks to create such an important event, at least 6 chapters were represented and nearly 20 people attended!

At the forum we had interactive sessions on organizing tabling and creating media plans. In these sessions, chapter leaders were grouped together and given a random topic that they had to table. They had 20 minutes to come up with a tabling plan and then about 3 minutes to present what they came up with. Following the tabling exercise, they had 10 minutes to do the same thing, but with creating a media plan for the event they just tabled.

The event's attendee surveys showed that this session was the most helpful because not only did it get people to work hands on as a group, but not every topic or strategy was the same.

We also had other presentations regarding transitioning, liberty events, student government, and building your base. Although many chapter leaders may not realize it, all of these subjects are important to the success of a chapter.

In my opinion, transitioning from one executive board to another is the most challenging objective to overcome. This process takes a long time and should start at your recruitment drive when you start looking for new members. Without proper leadership a group can fail, which is why the transition period is so important. If you know your group is personally struggling with this, do not ever hesitate to seek help from your State Chairs or Regional Director. We do not want to see a perfectly capable group fail!

Attending liberty events is also important because they give you the tools to be successful. Not only do you learn more about the Libertarian philosophy from these events, but you get to build your network and your own personal brand. Most of the time you can learn about the philosophy of Liberty on your own, but what these events are supposed to show you is how to articulate these ideas to others.

The mission of Young Americans for Liberty is to identify, educate, train, and mobilize youth activists that are committed to “winning on principle”. Attending events like State Conventions are the educating and training part of that mission. It is then up to you as leaders to mobilize!

At one point we had a break-out session where groups could go to the presentation that best fit their level. This made it less redundant for groups who have already heard the basics at other events.

For groups that are already very involved we had a session about making change on campus through student government. In this session chapter leaders were taught how to get involved through student government and why this step is important to the liberty movement. This presentation was presented by the Leadership Institute.

For groups that are just starting out, we had a session all about building a strong chapter base. In this session we talked about building genuine relationships, having meetings, being consistent, learning what resources are available (on campus and off campus), having a constitution, finding media outlets, making a plan, and attending events/trainings.

At the end of the Forum we had a really nice long group discussion about what can make our state better. Some ideas that came out of this were more events regarding liberty minded topics, informal events/trips, and better resources that are Wisconsin state specific. The whole point of the forum was to get everyone together as a group to come up with ideas such as these, so I was really happy to see everyone participate in this discussion.

Overall, the event went really well and got very good ratings! Everyone that took the survey said they would attend again next year. The only thing I would change is planning the event sooner to get the word out more and making it more interactive than it already was. At the end of the Forum everyone had the opportunity to attend the Milwaukee Brewers game. Although they lost, everyone had a great time. I’m excited to see how everything goes next year!

I would strongly recommend this event to other states. If anyone has any further questions regarding this Forum please do not hesitate to ask me! My email is lydia.schwertfeger@yaliberty.org and my phone number is (920) 299-0493.